Peeking Behind the Liberal Curtain

Even though I’m of their generation, I used to wonder how it was that so many people could stand listening to Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger sing. Even allowing for honest differences in taste, I couldn’t figure out their popularity. Then one day I decided that their fans, most of whom were my contemporaries, were the sort of folks who would listen to their caterwauling and think to themselves as they played on their air guitars: “I can sing as well as that.”

In much the same way, by his mere presence in the White House, rock star Barack Hussein Obama must give hope to millions of other liberal dingbats.

In case you missed it, Obama recently referred to his latest stimulus project as intercontinental railroads. I guess that’s the one that we mainlanders will be able to take to Hawaii, aka our 57th state. I take it that from now on, when he’s not busy blaming Bush, he’ll blame his damn racist, homophobic, hostage-taking Teleprompter.

Speaking of he who must be evicted, whenever I hear someone assert that Obama is an eloquent speaker, I assume they would say the same about Charlie McCarthy, Mortimer Snerd, Jerry Mahoney and Lamb Chop.

When leaders on the Left, those like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer, speak of compromise, what they really mean is acceding to their demands. It’s a characteristic they share with Islamists. It’s just one of several, now that I think about it.

In 2012, the Republican nominee might consider using “Hope and Change” as his campaign motto. It would certainly make a lot more sense next year than it did in 2008. At least this time we’d all know what it is that needs changing in the White House besides the initials on the towels.

Looking back on the first three years of this administration, I can’t decide which I’ve found more repulsive — Obama’s loony policies or his unmitigated arrogance. After all, he was the guy who vowed to heal the planet, lower the ocean and make America everybody’s sweetheart. And yet, in spite of a trillion dollar stimulus, this oaf has seen unemployment and underemployment soar; has seen nation after nation treat us like a toothless, foul-smelling, tiger; has seen his party lose one election after another; has seen his own approval numbers approach Jimmy Carter’s; has overseen the loss of our triple-A credit rating; and spent nearly two years twisting arms and bribing politicians to pass an unpopular 2,000-page health care bill that, in the end, is likely to be ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

So, how does The One explain this series of disasters? First, by blaming Bush, and then by blaming Republicans in Congress, referring to them as obstructionists. Just in case he hasn’t been paying attention to election results since 2008, most Americans want more, not less, obstructions to his socialist, power-grabbing, agenda.

Then, for good measure, instead of submitting a budget or offering to slash federal spending or doing something about runaway entitlements, he spent months trolling for campaign funds and golfing, pausing only long enough to vacation on Martha’s Vineyard before telling his betters to eat their peas.

Nero had nothing on this buffoon. The only difference is that Obama diddled while America burned.

Finally, like every other American, I was delighted when our State Department was able to bribe Iran to release the two hikers, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, but that initial euphoria only lasted until their plane landed, and Bauer’s first words were: “Two years in prison is too long,” adding that he hoped that their release, “will also bring freedom for political prisoners in America and Iran.”

It was at that point I decided I needed to find out more about these two nature lovers who couldn’t find a more benign place for a stroll than the bleak Iraq-Iran border.

Inasmuch as this jerk felt compelled to find a moral equivalency between the country that had tossed his sorry ass in prison and the country that had spent a great deal of time, effort and money, to gain his release, I wasn’t shocked to discover that Bauer is a freelance journalist for the San Francisco-based, far leftwing New America Media; that Fattal describes himself as an environmental activist; and that Bauer’s fiancé and fellow hiker, Sharon Shourd, who had been released a year earlier, is a member of Just Cause, an Oakland-based group that favors racial reparations, continues to oppose white colonialism decades after it ended, and even, ironically enough, finds nice things to say about Iran’s Ahmadinejad.

In a word, this nation has moved mountains in order to obtain the freedom of three typically ungrateful, brain-dead, Berkeleyites.

I sincerely hope that after their upcoming wedding, Shane and Sharon Bauer, along with best man Josh Fattal, spend the honeymoon taking a hike.

About Burt Prelutsky

Burt Prelutsky, a very nice person once you get to know him, has been a humor columnist for the L.A. Times and a movie critic for Los Angeles magazine. As a freelancer, he has written for the New York Times, Washington Times, TV Guide, Modern Maturity, Emmy, Holiday, American Film, and Sports Illustrated.
For television, he has written for Dragnet, McMillan & Wife, MASH, Mary Tyler Moore, Rhoda, Bob Newhart, Family Ties, Dr. Quinn and Diagnosis Murder. In addition, he has written a batch of terrific TV movies. View Burt’s IMDB profile.
Talk about being well-rounded, he plays tennis and poker... and rarely cheats at either.
He lives in the San Fernando Valley, where he takes his marching orders from a wife named Yvonne and a dog named Angel.Author website: http://www.burtprelutsky.com/

The USA is now enduring the 1st year of the 3rd Term of the Jimmy Carter Administration !!! 3 and 1/2 more years of this, and it is hard to believe, how this country will survive !!! Thank You, Liberal DemoRats !!!

michael mcglinch

MORE GARBAGE INTENDED TO DIVIDE US……DONT CARE WHICH SIDE YOU ARE ON REP OR DEM… WE WILL ONLY HAVE PROGRESS WHEN ENOUGH OF US AGREE ON ISSUES THAT MATTER AND STOP LETTING BUREAUCRATS PLAY US AGAINST EACH OTHER TO FORWARD THEIR OWN AGENDA AND PAD THEIR POCKETS….

Burt Prelutsky

Brendan: I like your idea, but I don’t think Iran would go along with it. They’d go broke trying to feed Obama’s ego.

Rand: I’m Burt Prelutsky and I approve your message.

Rand Mack

Excellent article, Burt. It’s a shining example of blatant and malicious bias in the media.

Brendan Horn

Burt,

It looks like the Obama administration is so deranged that when Iran does the US a favor by imprisoning the losers Bauer and Fattal, Obama screws that up by negotiating their release. I wish we could send all our losers like Bauer and Fattal and Obama for permanent imprisonment in Iran. We should even pay Iran for this valuable use of their prisons. The whole thing could be seen as a stimulus of addition by subtraction.

Burt Prelutsky

Roadmaster: I’d join you in a stiff one, but it would conflict with my meds, so pour me a root beer and we’ll toast Bill Mauldin.

Burt

Roadmaster

You’re absolutely spot on, as usual, Burt. What you say is truer than true, yet here we have millions of liberal loonies who aren’t even aware of what they have wrought upon the rest of us, with their tax the rich, gubmint is good, so more gubmint is better, touchy/feely save the whales, polar bears, spotted owls, humans are scum and the USA is EVIL, idiocy. Not you, or I nor the smartest people on the planet can show them where they are completely WRONG, yet here they are, happily pushing our once beautiful bus over a cliff toward oblivion. I’m a veteran and lifelong patriot, but I didn’t sign on for this mess. The dhimmicrats here in Tucson have such a stranglehold on the area, Nancy Pelosi could probably get elected here. Sheesh! I need a drink.

Burt Prelutsky

Barker: I wrote the article, Bernie was kind enough to post it. That’s the arrangement.

To all you so-called music lovers: To suggest that the music of the 60s was superior to what came before makes me question your taste, if not your sanity. What came before included such composers as Gershwin, Copland, Porter, Berlin, Rodgers, Loesser, Duke, Kern, Waller, Arlen, Carmichael, Lane, Anderson and Warren, along with such lyricists as Ira Gershwin, Harburg, Fields, Hart, Porter, Mercer and Hammerstein, and such musicians and singers as Benny Goodman, Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, Judy Garland, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, Oscar Levant, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Tommy Dorsey. And you folks are giving me Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan? Get serious.

Burt

Ken Besig, Israel

Why not bring up Mozart, Bach, Tchaikofsky, and all the rest of those classical artists? In the final analysis it’s all a matter of taste and who’s the judge of that, each and every one of us, that’s who!

Ken Hansen

There is music that is timeless, and there is music of a time – many people look to the music they grew up with as a sort of talisman back to certain periods of their life – they confuse it’s importance to them with it’s importance to everyone.

I had occasion to listen to the famous ‘Jimi Hendrix Star-Spangled Banner’ from his sunrise performance at Woodstock the other day and my first reaction was ‘what noise!’ but thinking about it later it wasn’t so much the music itself but it was the time, the place, the attitude, etc. that ade that the perfect piece of music, performed as it was at that time.

To me, a middle-aged man born in the early 60’s who doesn’t possess the ability to sit through even the highly-edited version of Woodstock captured in the film, it is noise, but we’re I there at the time, I’m certain I’d hear it differently.

And those hikers are twits.

And so is Herman Cain’s accuser – as soon as she started pontificating on what SHE expected Mr. Cain to do I started yelling at my radio – “Who EXACTLY are you to be deciding what Herman Cain should and shouldn’t do?” then she went on and said she was speaking out ‘for those who cn not, or will not, speak for themselves…’ Excuse me? She’d never spoken to any of the other accusers, she had no idea what THEY went through – who is she to try and speak for people she never met?

Their belief in the purity of their position emboldens them to exhibit extreme arrogance & condecencion…

Rick Daniel

I remember thinking when those hikers got arrested what stupid arrogant dimwits they must have been, and I didn’t even know about their politics until I read this post.

Their choice of venues bespeaks a total disregard of self-preservation, and worse, a complete disregard of the enormous diplomatic effort that would be required of other people to get them out afterwards. From their statements you quoted it would appear they haven’t learned a thing. Impenetrable arrogance like this is truly mind-boggling.

I would like to suggest they honeymoon in Somalia

Jeannette

Burt: It would be impossible for me to agree more with your column — especially concerning the comment that ingrate twit made about political prisoners.

IndependentLasVegas

I have NO CHANGE in my pocket and NO HOPE!

With the current group of WEAK candidates the Republicans have put up to beat Obama.. If the election were held today Vegas odds maker have Obama winning 2-1..

I’m convinced the GOP is either throwing this election or STUPID OR BOTH…. In a country with 300 million people this is the best the GOP can do? Pleeeeeeeeez!

Ken Hansen

I’m voting for ‘Generic Republican’ not any specific Republican…

ken nixon

Say what you wanta about music and songs, but the truth of the matter is: Songs of the 40s & 50s had clear and understanding lyrics as oppose to the gibbish, slurping sounds of todays songs.

Rick Daniel

Ken, My dad used to say that. His favorite example was “Fim little fishies, fim if you tan, and they fam and they fam allover the dam”

abby n

Thank you for saying what we were all thinking about those hikers. I am a huge fan!

gepaza

Another fantastic opinion piece from the best writer in America today!

But, I must point out one minor item. The true depth of Obama’s ignorance, arrogance and stupidity concerning the states is almost always mis-stated. He actually said that had visited 57, had one more to go, and that his campaign wouldn’t let him go to Alaska or Hawaii. So, he was assuming that there 60 states, but Hawaii, in his mind, was not one of the 57.

We mortals can only assume that there was a wandering electron in his teleprompter that sabotaged him.

Ken Hansen

Every ‘success’ this administration claims is either an extension of policies of the preceding administration and every failure is blamed on the previous administration.

This administration defends the decision to adhere to Bush’s previously negotiated withdrawal of troops as a fulfillment of ‘a campaign promise’ but what it really reflects is this administration’s inability to extend our presence and ensure our hard-earned gains in the region aren’t lost.

He stands in front of a perfectly fine bridge and declares it a shining example of ‘our crumbling infrastructure’ and precious few news outlets note the error (seems Obama wanted to make a political point because of the states the bridges connect, that political desire trumped accuracy).

Remember he was gonna close Git’mo?

Remember he was gonna raise the minimum wage?

Remember he was gonna reign in deficit spending?

Remember he was gonna unite a divided America?

Remember his promise of transparency? His administration, just this sat week, has defied a congressional subpoena for documents relating to white house involvement in the Solyndra loan guarantees, and even though they have identified documents that relate directly to the issue (WH involvement in loan guarantee) they refuse to make them public – they’ll show them to congress ‘in camera’ (in private), not on the record.

The best thing that could happen this year would be for someone to challenge Obama on the Left (Nader?)… Please Mr. Nader, run!

Barker

Kudos to you, Mr. Goldberg, for this brilliant essay on the stupid mindset and the misery caused by Obama and the Dems in congress.
Except for the great music of the Beatles, I agree with you that most music of the 60’s was gibberish.
You also nail the socialist American press and their lies when your appear on the O’Reilly show.
I’m Looking forward to more of your wise and witty reporting.

Glen Stambaugh

Choosing between Obama’s arrogance & his destructive policies is easy for me. His arrogance in benign. His policies strangle & suffocate. Look forward to everything you write, Burt.

Jenna

Great, great, great article. I have become a huge fan!

Steve

Not, “Hope and Change,” sir, but “CHANGE IT BACK!” is a much better slogan. Also, He Who Must Be Evicted should take a hike, too. I hope the four of them will be very happy together. Otherwise you’re right on target.

samantha perumal

all true!wonderful !

Ken Besig, Israel

While some of the music of the ’60’s was crap, much of it was very good, and certainly a big change from what preceded it. I was there Burt, I’m a Viet Nam War vet and a veteran of the Civil Rights movement, the drop out hippies, and all the rest.
I have to point out that most of us were stoned out of our minds on all sorts of drugs and spoiled beyond belief by parents who were so damaged by the Great Depression and WWII that they wanted only good times and happiness for us and shielded up from as much misfortune as they could.
Moving along to Obama, much of America is even more stoned today than my generation was on close to lethal amounts of cocaine, ecstasy, meth, and alcohol and utterly spoiled by years of a growing and profitable economy. Well Burt, the happy American economic train has collided with greed and bankruptcy, much like the Roaring ’20’s met with in October 1929 and the results are not pretty. No more guaranteed good jobs, large houses, and rosy futures, but rather more of hard and poorly paid work, living with one’s parents, and real doubt and fear about the future.
Obama used that fear and doubt to win election, promising that he was the Messiah who would cure the planet, save the oceans, get the economy back on track, and let the good times roll! Obama also had a pliant and cooperative media which poisoned the air waves with smears, lies, and demonization of George Bush, John McCain, Sarah Palin, and the entire GOP.
If anything the fear and doubt among young Americans especially is worse than ever under the regime of Barack Obama, vis the OWS protests, and all Obama knows to do is divisive class warfare rhetoric, demonize of those who question his policies, and blame the GOP for not submitting to his dictates.
I will only mention that Barack Obama’s foreign policy seems to hinge on blaming Israel for every problem America faces.
All the best,

FRANK C.

I’m a long time Conservative too.
I HOPE those jerks you wrote about do their Honeymoon back in Iran. Let them spend the rest of their lives in Iran’s prisons! They are Americans.

But, if you really are from my generation, quit being an old fuddy and re-listen to our Rock & Roll, man!
Mick & Bob Dylan are fantastic Musicians & performers!
The Beatles are still the Best Music ever made!
I don’t agree with one viewpoint of theirs. But they sure made some really great Music!! I listen to it all the Time!
You know, there’s another benefit to digging our Culture {of the 1965-1970s}: The Women! The Women of my Generation may be in their middle to late-50s, but they are still Great Women!
Most of them sill like to have Sex with us! Their Mothers & Grandmothers shut down their Lives at 49 & 40, respectively!
Most of Our Women are still Alive!

LIFE doesn’t reward Oldsters!

Ken Besig, Israel

I agree with you 100% about the music! I am not just saying that because it was the music I grew up on, it’s because the music was really good, and compared to the garbage being produced since then, the ’60’s music was GREAT!

Jeannette

Ken: Great comment. I’m from about the same era as Burt, and right about now, the music of the 60’s sounds very good. In fact, I could get all nostalgic about it. Okay, maybe not all that nostalgic, but you get the point.

Noonien Soong

A very enlightening article and very well done.
As to the part of blaming Bush, I am tempted to ask prez Obama if he were playing a stringed instrument. Most notable would be a harp. He seems to want play it so often as he can as though it is his comfort binky.

Joe Castiglia

How do I stand up and applaud for a commentary? I couldn’t agree more with every single point in this article.

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